The present invention relates to repeating firearms, and particularly to an accessory for a repeating firearm using a replaceable magazine.
In land warfare the individual infantry soldier is still an important part of military operations. The effectiveness of the individual soldier depends to a large extent on the accuracy, rate of fire, and number of rounds of ammunition which each individual soldier is capable of providing. For that reason, modern infantry weapons are capable of high cyclic rates of fire and are usually equipped with magazines capable of holding dozens of cartridges. Such magazines must usually be manually released from the weapon when they have become empty, at which time a full magazine must be inserted into the weapon before firing may be continued. In order to be capable of sustained firing an infantry soldier carries loaded spare magazines, typically held in protective pouches attached to ammunition belts. When actually engaged in combat it is common for soldiers to carry spare magazines ready for more immediate use, since removal of a loaded magazine from a cartridge belt may take an undesirably long time.
It is clumsy, however, to carry a loaded spare magazine in one's hand, since it detracts from the ability to securely hold the weapon and accurately direct its fire.
In order to provide an ability to fire more rounds quickly, magazines have previously been welded together side by side, usually in opposing orientation which requires the welded pair to be turned over between releasing an empty magazine and inserting the loaded spare magazine of a pair into the weapon. This procedure takes an undesirably long amount of time, is awkward, and means that a spare welded pair of magazines is twice as heavy and clumsy to carry in the hand as a single one.
Soldiers have also been known to carry spare magazines into combat taped together in pairs for quick accessibility for reloading their weapons. This practice also reduces the amount of time to reload, compared with carrying spare magazines in a cartridge belt.
A problem common to use of paired magazines, carrying spare magazines in the hand, and carrying spare magazines taped together is that none of these techniques provides protection for the cartridges within such spare magazines. The magazines used with most automatic firearms retain the cartridges in such a way that they are not completely covered, but are able to be removed one by one by the operating mechanism of the firearm. The mechanism of the firearm, however, must be kept clean, and exposure of the open upper or outfeed end of a magazine to dust, dirt, mud, and weather is likely to result in malfunction of the weapon when such a magazine is inserted into the weapon for firing its cartridges. In a combat situation such a weapon failure could prove fatal.
While a longer period of sustained fire might be provided by simply using a larger magazine with the weapon, this solution is workable only so long as the increased size of the magazine does not interfere with convenient carrying or aiming of the weapon. Additionally, reliable cartridge feeding mechanisms for extremely large magazines may be somewhat complex and therefore undesirable.
In view of the previously known ways of providing quickly available loaded spare magazines, it appears that what is needed is a device for securely carrying a loaded spare magazine in a position where it is immediately available, held close to the location where it is to be inserted into a firearm for use. Such a device should protect ammunition in a spare magazine from contamination with dirt and moisture, and a spare magazine should be able to be removed from such a device and inserted into the weapon with only a minimum amount of manipulation.